Photo Credit: Noel Lanier/OnPitRoad.com
“His final words were to me were to never give up because it’s never over.” – Kevin Harvick on Tony Stewart’s last piece of advice before the start of the race.
He knew that it would take whatever it took to win the championship, and that’s what he did.
Kevin Harvick would take the lead with seven laps to go from Denny Hamlin and then held off Ryan Newman on a restart with three laps to go to win the Ford EcoBoost 400 and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship.
“I’m just really exited. Really special for everybody,” Harvick said. “Been trying for 13 years. Got to thank Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson for helping me this week in telling me what I needed to do today. Everybody out there, we appreciate you coming today. This new format has been stressful but the racing has been exciting. I’m going to sleep for a week.”
Harvick’s 28th career victory and fifth of the season hands him his first career championship in his 14th season, first at Stewart-Haas Racing.
“I just don’t know what to say and how much I appreciate all the guys on this team for everything that they put into this team. It came down to a pit call and I was like, ‘We’re in big trouble here’. Rodney and everybody just did an amazing job,” Harvick commented. “I was just holding the peddle down and hoping for the best.”
After starting off the season on a rocky note with mechanical issues, Harvick got it pointed the right direction during the second half to be up front on a weekly basis and contend for race wins to keep himself in contention till the final race to win the championship. He then would run up front all race long – leading 54 laps – en route to the victory.
“They gave us all the resources that we need,” Harvick continued. “They told us whatever we needed, we could go get. We never talked about anything financially. We built all new racecars, truck, trailers, and this format really helped us through the year. We had really fast cars, but it helped us build as a team, character through the year to be champions at the end of the year.”
Throughout the race, all four championship contenders – Harvick, Hamlin, Newman and Joey Logan0 – kept themselves near the front of the field, running first through fourth at one point. Everything would change with 20 laps to go as a caution would fly for debris in turn two. Hamlin would choose to stay out and restart second behind Jeff Gordon, while Newman came down pit road for two tires to restart sixth. Harvick and Logano made the choice for four tires with Harvick’s pit stop going well to restart 12th. Logano, meanwhile, would have a disastrous pit stop with the car falling off the jack en route to having to restart 29th.
Hamlin would jump to the lead on the restart with 15 laps to go, while Newman got himself up to third with Harvick getting up to seventh before the caution flew again with 14 laps to go for a wreck between J.J. Yeley and Blake Koch. Gordon would give up second to pit for tires, wanting a shot to win, moving Newman and Harvick up a spot; Logano also took the opportunity to come and get tires.
The restart would come with nine laps to go as Newman would fail to get going, allowing Hamlin to jump out to the lead while Harvick split his way through the traffic to second. He would then chase down Hamlin, passing him down the backstretch with seven laps to go. Harvick would look like he could cruise to victory when the caution flew with six laps to go for debris in turns one and two.
The result would be a final restart with three to go with Harvick as leader, Newman second and Hamlin third. Hamlin would once again have trouble get going while Newman and Harvick battled side-by-side into turn one. Harvick would get the run off of the corner to get out front of Newman, where he stayed till the checkered flag fell.
“It was one of the longest few laps of my life,” Harvick’s wife Delana said of the final laps.
For Delana, she’s been by Harvick’s side throughout his career and supported the move that he made from Richard Childress Racing to SHR over last year’s off-season.
“It’s surreal,” she said of the championship. “To make the change that he did to come fight for this championship with one of the best group of guys that I’ve been around, they deserve it. they are champions. A lot of people they think it might be scary, but Kevin wanted the challenge. To have everybody at SHR believe in him, it meant the world to him.”
For Stewart-Haas Racing, this marks their second championship following in suit with Stewart’s championship as a driver in 2011.
“I am totally in awe,” Gene Haas said of the team’s success. “Tony had the faith in me, and I had the faith in him and it’s paid off. This second championship is just unbelievable – I’m in awe.”
“I think when they went to their first test, we knew they would be a force to be wrecking with,” Stewart added. “I think it shows how good this Chase was this year with having everybody up front and having to win the race. It shows how hard it is to win a championship. I’m excited for Stewart-Haas Racing, and for this man right beside us. He had enough faith to believe in this organization to win the championship.”
For Newman, he would see his bid at a first career championship come up just short as he crossed the finish line second for his 16th top-10 finish of the season.
“That was a little bit tough,” Newman commented on the late race restart. “I thought about hauling it in there wide open, but that wasn’t the right thing to do. I didn’t want to do that to Kevin, and I knew Kevin wouldn’t do that to me. I have to thank everybody. They say it’s been amazing year. They say you have to lose one to win one so I’m ready to win one now.”
Newman added that the success they had says a lot about Richard Childress Racing and how quickly he and the team grew together in first year and noted that while they didn’t win a race this year, they had a lot of fun along the way.
Brad Keselowski would finish third, followed by Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray. Matt Kenseth would finish sixth, followed by Denny Hamlin, who fell back on the late race restart.
“I had a bad restart, and lost position to the four (Harvick). Darian made the decision to stay out there on tires to try and get track position back and it just didn’t work out,” Hamlin commented. “Sometimes cautions fall your way, sometimes they don’t. We had a great car on the long run, improved on the short run throughout the day. Can’t thank the sponsors for a great year. We defiantly gave ourselves a shot and things were looking good for us.”
Hamlin added that based on the competition throughout the day, it showed that the right four teams made the final bracket of the Chase.
“We were all right up front all day. Proud to be in this position and at least have a shot at it, leading this thing with a few laps to go,” Hamlin continued. “Just couldn’t overcome those tires and that’s all she wrote.”
Clint Bowyer finished eighth, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson. Larson picks up the 2014 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year Award.
Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 14th, followed by Justin Allgaier and Joey Logano.
“We had a great season right up to the last 20 laps,” Logano said. “I made a mistake and got into the wall. We were able to fix that and get back up there where we neded to be. Unfortunately, a great season – still a good season – got taken away by one pit stop. We scored the most points but hey, that doesn’t pay anymore. I’m not making excuses; we knew that coming in. we just didn’t execute in the final race.”
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RT @OnPitRoad_: NSCS: @kevinharvick wins Ford EcoBoost 400 and Sprint Cup Series Championship by @ladybug388 http://t.co/F994tGsW9v #SHR #N…